The Choice
by Pork Eggrolls
Summary: We've all had difficult choices in our lives. But Percy is about to make the toughest choice the world has ever seen.
1. Chapter 1

"Come here, Percy," The Goddess called out.

He was in a dark room where the only source of light was the twin torches hanging from opposite sides of the black walls. In the center stood a tall woman, whose robes were almost as caliginous as the chamber she was in.

"Who are you?" Percy asked the woman.

"I am the Goddess Remera," She answered, "The Goddess of dreams and nightmares. Only the worthiest of mortals know of me, and you are one of them."

"So this is a dream?" Percy asked, "Why am I here then?"

"I can see through your soul Percy," The Goddess replied, "I can see your memories. I know of your heroic deeds. You are gallant, Percy, very, very gallant. I reward those who are brave."

"So you're here to reward me?"

"Yes, Percy. But first, I must tell you that sometime in your future you will have to make a difficult choice."

"What difficult choice?"

"In one hand, you will have your own life," The Goddess said, "In the other, you will have Annabeth's life. Both of you will be near death, but only one of you can be saved. You will have to choose which."

"You mean, one of us will die and I have to choose who?"

"Exactly," She confirmed, "I'm sorry, Percy, but that moment will happen very soon. A great demigod like you does not deserve this."

"How can I save her?" Percy whispered.

"It appears you have already decided who you will save," The Goddess smiled.

Percy frowned, "How do you know? Can you read my thoughts?"

"No Percy," Came the reply, "You asked how you can save _her_."

"Yeah," Percy murmured, "So what if I did?"

"You are a really great man, Percy," The Goddess said, "I hate being the harbinger of bad news to a good man. You'll sacrifice your life thoughtlessly in order to save your friends. That is great and chivalrous, but is it always the right choice?"

"How will it not be the right choice?" Percy asked.

"I will give you a potion," The Goddess replied, ignoring Percy's question, "You will see it when you wake up on your nightstand."

"How will it not be the right choice?" Percy asked again.

"The potion will heal anyone to full health, regardless how fatal their injuries are-"

"Listen, Remero or whatever," Percy interrupted, "To me, Annabeth's life is worth much more than mine! There's no way I will save myself over her!"

"However, the potion will only be enough for one person," The Goddess continued.

"Will you just answer my question?" Percy exclaimed.

The Goddess sighed, "You are strong, Percy, very strong, which makes you a very valuable demigod. You are capable of defeating monsters no other demigods could even dream of fighting. You must know that Annabeth is not as powerful as you. This world needs someone who can protect others from the darkest monster, succeed in quests where all others fail, and become the symbol for all future demigods. You are that someone right now. If you die, who will replace you?"

The boy shook his head, "I can't…. I can't let her die."

The Goddess hesitated, "It is completely your choice. You still have time to think over it. I know you will know what to do when the time comes, Percy."

Suddenly, the room started to fade and Percy instinctly knew that he was waking up.

"Please choose well…." The voice of the Goddess echoed.

Percy Jackson woke up in his Poseidon cabin for another day in Camp Half-Blood.

* * *

Well, what do you guys think? Please review and tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter! I want you guys to know that I really appreciate your support. This is the first time I ever wrote a story that has a bit of romance involved in it. It'll be an experiment for me. Anyways, tell me what you think!

* * *

"Oi! Percy! Wake up!" The familiar voice of his friend Grover called out from outside his cabin, "You're gonna miss the whole day!"

Percy's eyes sprang open; his body sat up on his bed.

He groaned, signaling to Grover that he's awake.

"Good! Now hurry up and dress! I lost my sack of aluminum cans! You gotta help me find them!"

There was a rustling sound of footsteps, and Percy realized that Grover was walking away. He fell back onto the soft mattress of his bed once more and thought about his strange encounter with the Goddess Remera.

"It was a dream," he told himself, "It wasn't real. I'm gonna live. _Annabeth's_ gonna live."

Yet when he turned to look at his nightstand, his heart gave a jolt. There was a clear vial resting on the surface of the furniture, and inside was a small volume of bubbling, yellow liquid. It was the potion; the very one the Goddess had promised.

He swore and jumped out of his bed.

"No, no, no, no!" he cried, "I'm still dreaming! This isn't happening."

He slapped himself across the cheek, but the pain that followed afterwards seemed real enough. And when he realized that he was in reality, his knees dropped to the floor, and both of his hands wrapped around the sides of his head.

"This can't be happening."

A faint voice of Remera echoed in his mind, "I'm sorry. I really, truly am."

Percy Jackson kneeled desperately to the ground. His body was slump with despair.

"Hey, man," Grover called out, wrapping an arm around Percy's shoulders, "What up? It turned out that someone stole my sack of cans and moved it to the forest. But I found it though, and I can't wait to get my hands on the guy who did it."

"That's great, Grover," Percy answered half-heartedly, his mind still lost in his thoughts, "But I'm feeling pretty tired right now, can I just relax by myself for a while?"

"What do you mean, Perce?" Grover replied, not seeming to get the message, "You just woke up! How could you be tired already?"

"Grover, I'm really just-"

"Hey, Seaweed Brain!"

The two boys looked up and saw a beaming Annabeth standing right in front of them.

"Hey, Annabeth," Percy grumbled.

Grover stared for a bit, smiled, and then said, "Um, I'm gonna just take a walk for a little bit. I'll leave you two by yourselves for a while."

And with that, the satyr left, leaving the couple alone.

"So what are you planning to do today?" Annabeth asked.

"Nothing," Percy sighed. Annabeth glanced sideways at the depressed demigod and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Percy repeated. He thought about telling Annabeth about the dream, but couldn't quite think of how to begin. How could he possibly explain it? _Hey Annabeth, I just had this weird dream about this Goddess telling me one of us is going to die soon!_

"Yeah right," Annabeth said, "C'mon, surely you can tell me. Am I not your confidante?"

Percy forced a smile, "Really, there's nothing going on!"

And not even Annabeth's piercing gray eyes could wring it out of Percy.

"Well, in that case," Annabeth sighed, giving in, "Anything you want to say to me?"

Percy looked at his grinning girlfriend. Her beautiful smile almost made him cry.

"Annabeth," He said, "I just want to tell you that…."

"That?"

Percy took a deep breath and forced the next words out of him, "That I love you."

And before Annabeth could respond, Percy darted away, feeling even more down than he ever was in his life.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you for all the reviews last time and I'm sorry I was so late to post this. I was quite busy and stuff (actually not really, I was just lazy). So here is the next chapter! :D

By the way, I guess I'll reply to a couple of comments I got.

Well, it actually, it turns out most of you just wrote "more". So there really isn't much to reply to that except to give you the next chapter. Well, guys, if you want to ask questions, go ahead and I'll try to reply to all of them next time!

So here goes the next chapter

* * *

There were 57 yellow dots on his polka dot socks. Percy Jackson counted them all as he lay silently on his bed. He remembered that Annabeth had given it to him for his birthday. Other guys receive shirts or maybe even x-boxes from their girlfriends. He was given a pair of socks. Annabeth was just special like that.

Percy was pretty good at multi-tasking, so he could easily count and think about his dream at the same time. He now had one goal, and it was to protect Annabeth no matter what. If she doesn't get hurt in the first place, then he wouldn't even have to make a choice. Prevent Annabeth from injury, that's all he needed to do.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a girl screaming outside his cabin, and Percy jumped out of his bed in alarm. He cursed and bolted out of his room. Could the yell possibly be from Annabeth? His heart was filled with dread as he searched wildly around the campus for the source of the noise. He didn't even notice that Grover was behind him until he bumped into him.

"Whoa, there," Gorver said, "Chill down a little."

"Grover," Percy demanded, "That scream. Who was it?"

"Oh, just some random satyr who claimed that she found something horrifying. I took her to Chiron to solve the problem."

Percy felt relieved, "Thanks. Do you know where Annabeth is?"

"I don't know," Grover said, frowning, "Where'd you leave her at?"

"Percy!"

Percy whirled his head around and saw a camper calling out to him.

"You're Percy Jackson, right?" The boy asked as he accosted him.

"Yeah," Percy replied.

"Chiron wants you in his office immediately," The boy panted, he seemed out of breathe from trying to find him, "He said this is dead serious."

Percy's heart sank once again. Things were starting to get even worse.

"And you're Grover?" The boy asked the satyr

Grover nodded.

"You need to go to," The boy said and walked away, still trying to catch his breathe.

"I guess we better go then," Grover mumbled. And the two both ran to see what the grave news is

* * *

Clarisse was already in the office when Percy and Grover arrived, and for once she didn't aim an insult at Percy.

"Ah, Percy!" said a male voice.

Percy turned and saw Chiron trotting his way towards him.

"I hope you've had a good night's sleep last night," The centaur said.

Percy almost laughed. Chiron should seriously join Comedy Central.

"What do you want with me, sir?" Percy asked.

"We have a problem."

"Oh, really?" Percy asked sarcastically, sounding rather rude when he said it.

Chiron stared into Percy's eyes with shock from his outburst and said, "We have a Craner running loose."

"No way!" Clarisse cried out.

"How old?" Gorver asked.

Percy frowned from lack of understanding.

"You see, the satyr you guys probably heard screaming earlier came and told me this. She said that she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw it. It was-"

"Excuse me, sir," Percy interrupted, "What's a Craner?"

"Are you serious?" Clarisse asked in disbelief, "You don't know what a legendary Craner is?"

"Clarisse, no need to make others feel bad for their lack of knowledge," Chiron said, sounding a bit bitter, "A Craner is a monster that looks like a human. It has a purple crusted shell surrounding its body and yellow eyes."

"How strong is it?" Percy asked.

"That's the thing," Chiron answered, "It varies by their age. A newborn Craner is unbelievable weak. But each month, its powers increases dramatically. If it survives up to 6 months, it should be about as strong as a regular demigod. That is why we try and destroy Craners before they ever grow to be that old, because they are potentially dangerous."

"So how old is this one?" Percy asked.

"That's the problem," Chiron answered worriedly, "We, which is Dionysus and I, couldn't believe it when we heard the age. Apparently, this Craner is five years old!"

Grover's mouth hung open, "Five years?"

Chiron nodded gravely.

"What's wrong with that?" Percy asked, "Doesn't sound that old."

"Percy," Grover said," Do your math. If a Craner is already as strong as a demigod at the age of six months, think about how strong they are if they're five years old."

"Then," Percy said, thinking, "Oh my God. If that's the case, then this Craner should be-"

"-at least ten times stronger than a regular demigod," Grover finished, "That much power should match Kronos!"

Percy's heart seemed to sink even lower as the math sank in.

"Where is it?" He asked.

"Right now, it is rather close. It's in Maryland." Chiron answered.

"That's not that far," Percy answered, "So I'm guessing we're going to have a mission to exterminate this Craner?"

"Correct," Chiron answered.

"Then I'll go," Clarisse said, "I'm much stronger than most of the other campers here. I'll stand a chance against this Craner."

"I'm going too," Grover said, "I'm sure I can detect this Craner wherever it's hiding."

"I'm in it as well," Percy said, "There's no way you're leaving me behind on this one."

"Then it's decided then," Chiron said, "You guys will-"

"And me!" A voice called out.

Four heads turned around and saw Annabeth standing at the doorway.

"I'm going too," Annabeth said, grinning.

"No!" Percy exclaimed, shocking everyone including himself.

"What?" Annabeth cried, sounding hurt, "Why not?"

"Annabeth, please," Percy begged, "Don't go on this mission with us."

"How come?"

"Well, I can't really explain," Percy stuttered, "Just don't."

"Are you sure you're feeling okay today, Percy?"

"You know," Grover said, "I really think Annabeth should go."

"And for once," Clarisse added, "I'm going to agree. We're going to need some help for this mission."

"But guys," Percy said, "Don't you remember our mission with the Hunters for rescuing Annabeth and defeating Atlas? There were five of us. Only three survived. Three is like the maximum for a mission. Any more and someone will die!"

"Percy," Chiron said softly, "I don't think you know how serious this mission actually is. A Craner of this ability has never existed in the entire history of mankind. This will not be an easy battle. It's better to send in someone extra and have one person lost but complete the mission than it is to send in only three, get them all killed, and fail the mission anyways."

Percy began, "But-"

"Percy, are you worried about me getting killed?" Annabeth asked, "Don't worry, I'll outlive you by decades."

Percy scowled but knew his battle has lost.

"Fine," he replied, not telling Annabeth how much those words actually hurt, "Whatever."

"Well then" Chiron said, "Looks like the mission has been made. Let's bring in the Oracle and then get started!"

ANnabeth, Grover, and Clarisse ran to get Racheal, but Percy miserable stayed behind. Someone was going to die. And he knew that it will either be him or Annabeth.

* * *

So what'd you guys think? Please comment and ask me stuff! Remember, I'll try and reply to them next time!


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